INTERNACIONAL
LA homelessness fraud cases expose deeper problem than stolen millions, oversight hawk warns
Federal charges alleging that millions of dollars were siphoned from Los Angeles homelessness programs are exposing what one lawmaker told Digital is a deeper failure in the way Washington funds and measures such programs.
The latest cases out of Los Angeles fuel the concern of Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas that only are corrupt providers stealing taxpayer money, but that the programs aren’t meeting their goal of getting people off the streets.
«The only people really getting upward mobility in these programs, it would seem, is the people running the programs,» Cloud told Digital after a House Oversight hearing examining federally funded homelessness programs in Los Angeles, Seattle and elsewhere. «And that’s not really what the program’s supposed to be about.»
LA REAL ESTATE VET COMES AT MAYOR BASS WITH RECEIPTS OVER DAMNING HOMELESSNESS REPORT: ‘SHE DOESN’T GET IT’
Federal prosecutors charged three defendants Wednesday in separate homelessness-fraud cases involving alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, including money allegedly spent on a nightclub and adjacent bingo hall and bribes allegedly tied to fake housing referrals.
Los Angeles’ homelessness agency paid one of the suspect nonprofits more than $75 million, according to federal prosecutors, leading Cloud to seek out the real culprits blazing the money trail.
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE
Cloud said the fraud itself is only one piece of a broader problem, and that the system appears to reward spending and program activity without adequately measuring lasting outcomes.
Government too often judges success by «how much money we send out the door» instead of whether the spending is «actually helping people» or whether safeguards are in place to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used properly, Cloud said – describing the system as having been «incentivized for fraud.»
«We’ve got to take those incentives out and get back to making sure that all these programs have incentives for oversight and that the dollars are managed well,» Cloud said.
LETITIA JAMES FACES SCRUTINY AFTER NEW YORK CITY SPENDS $81,700 PER HOMELESS PERSON AMID SHELTER SCANDALS
Some programs can keep a person «kind of in a cycle of dependency so that the program manager has job security, in a sense, and gets to live off the government dime,» Cloud said
«You [are seeing] as we begin to look into waste, fraud and abuse, why is it that these Democrat-led states are saying, no, we don’t want the controls in place,» he said, pointing to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ decision to step down from the LAHSA commission.
Los Angeles is not alone, he said, citing what has been called the feds’ «Housing First» philosophy – generally prioritizing placing homeless in housing with less immediate regard for sobriety, mental-health treatment or overall stabilizing services.
WATCH: DR. OZ SAYS NEWSOM, OTHER BLUE STATES HAVE TURNED MEDICAID FRAUD INTO A ‘FEATURE’
Cloud did not use the term «Housing First» during the interview, but he described the concern behind that critique, arguing that some homelessness programs define success in ways that leave people dependent on government rather than moving toward independence.
Housing First is distinct from HUD’s «Continuum of Care» framework, which is the local funding and coordination structure through which nonprofit providers, state and local governments and other organizations receive federal homelessness money.
WALZ ADMINISTRATION IGNORED FRAUD WARNINGS AS BILLIONS VANISHED, HOUSE OVERSIGHT REPORT ALLEGES
In Los Angeles, LAHSA leads the local Continuum of Care, which HUD says received nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars over the previous five years.
Under Secretary Scott Turner, HUD moved to suspend LAHSA this year, citing alleged failures involving financial management, internal controls and safeguards against conflicts of interest. LAHSA has challenged the federal action in court.
«The ‘housing first’ experiment failed Americans by warehousing the vulnerable without results,» Turner said in June when HUD announced a $4.04 billion Continuum of Care funding opportunity.
SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER
«This ideology promised to end homelessness. Instead, billions of taxpayer dollars were spent while homelessness increased to record levels.»
That funding will focus on organizations aiding treatment and recovery, while setting aside $1.3 billion for new projects prioritizing transitional housing and supportive services and adding measures intended to prevent fraud, waste and abuse.
homeless crisis, los angeles, social policy, controversies state and local, corruption crime, corruption, reform, republicans
INTERNACIONAL
Por qué el terremoto en Panamá se sintió durante varios segundos y las hipótesis sobre su origen tectónico
El movimiento pareció no terminar. El terremoto de magnitud preliminar 7,6 que sacudió Panamá y se sintió en Costa Rica se extendió durante varios segundos para quienes estaban lejos de su epicentro, una percepción que respondió a la forma en que viajaron las ondas sísmicas desde la península de Azuero. El evento, ocurrido este viernes 9 de octubre, es considerado el más fuerte registrado en el país en el último siglo y reabrió la atención sobre una zona donde interactúan estructuras tectónicas complejas.
El sismo ocurrió a las 12:56 (hora local, 14:56 de la Argentina) y tuvo su epicentro en la región panameña de Azuero. Las estimaciones iniciales ubicaron la profundidad entre 10 y 33 kilómetros, un rango que lo clasifica como un movimiento superficial. Esa combinación —una magnitud elevada y una fuente cercana a la superficie— ayudó a explicar por qué fue percibido en una amplia zona de Panamá y Costa Rica.
Según la información preliminar, el temblor alcanzó una magnitud de 7,6. El antecedente histórico más fuerte de Panamá se remonta al 7 de septiembre de 1882, cuando un terremoto estimado entre 7,7 y 7,9 afectó el golfo de San Blas, en la actual comarca de Guna Yala. Aquel evento produjo daños en Ciudad de Panamá y Colón, además de un tsunami en el archipiélago de San Blas.
Por qué el terremoto de Panamá se sintió durante tanto tiempo en Costa Rica
Para muchas personas, la duración fue uno de los aspectos más llamativos del movimiento. Leopold Linkimer, sismólogo de la Red Sismológica Nacional (RSN), explicó que la distancia con respecto al foco del sismo cambia la manera en que se percibe el paso de las ondas.
“Entre más distante estamos del epicentro, entonces las ondas sísmicas llegan con diferentes velocidades al lugar donde nos encontramos y por eso la totalidad del movimiento se siente como más extenso”, afirmó Linkimer, de acuerdo con CRHoy.
El terremoto no transmite un único impulso. Libera distintos tipos de ondas, que atraviesan el subsuelo a velocidades diferentes. Algunas llegan primero y otras lo hacen después. En las zonas alejadas del epicentro, esa separación temporal puede ser más perceptible y prolongar la sensación de sacudida.
De esta manera, una persona ubicada cerca de la ruptura puede sentir un movimiento más concentrado e intenso. En cambio, alguien situado a cientos de kilómetros recibe señales sísmicas que se suceden durante más tiempo. La duración percibida no implica que el terremoto haya sido más largo en todos los lugares, sino que las ondas alcanzaron cada región de una manera distinta.
La magnitud también tuvo peso. Un evento de 7,6 libera mucha más energía que los sismos moderados que suelen registrarse en la región. Esa energía se propagó por el terreno y permitió que la sacudida llegara a buena parte del territorio costarricense.
Qué originó el terremoto de Panamá
Una de las primeras hipótesis sitúa el terremoto en una zona de contacto entre la placa de Nazca y la microplaca de Panamá. La placa de Nazca es una gran porción de la corteza terrestre ubicada bajo el océano Pacífico, mientras que la microplaca de Panamá forma parte de un bloque más pequeño que incluye sectores del sur de Centroamérica.
Linkimer advirtió que los análisis todavía eran preliminares. “El terremoto habría ocurrido en la zona en límite entre las placas Nazca y la microplaca de Panamá”, señaló.
Ese contacto puede involucrar dos tipos de movimiento. Uno es la subducción, proceso por el cual una placa se introduce debajo de otra. El otro consiste en un desplazamiento lateral, cuando dos bloques se deslizan de forma horizontal. Ambos mecanismos pueden acumular tensión durante años y liberarla de forma repentina mediante un terremoto.
La profundidad estimada, entre 10 y 33 kilómetros, es otro dato relevante. Un sismo superficial ocurre relativamente cerca de la superficie terrestre. Por eso, aun cuando el epicentro se encuentre en una zona rural o poco poblada, puede sentirse a gran distancia si su magnitud es elevada.
La falla de Azuero, otra de las hipótesis bajo análisis
Los especialistas no descartaron que el evento se haya producido en una falla situada dentro de la placa superior. Entre las estructuras que deberán analizarse figura la falla de Azuero, una formación geológica de gran extensión ubicada en la península panameña del mismo nombre.
Una falla es una fractura de la corteza terrestre cuyos lados pueden desplazarse entre sí. Cuando la presión acumulada supera la resistencia de las rocas, se produce una liberación de energía. Esa liberación viaja en forma de ondas y genera el temblor que perciben las personas.
Por ahora, no hay una conclusión definitiva sobre el mecanismo que originó el terremoto. La RSN indicó que se requieren más estudios de los registros sísmicos para determinar si predominó la interacción entre placas, una falla local o una combinación de ambos procesos.
La revisión posterior de los datos puede ajustar la magnitud, la profundidad y la ubicación precisa de la ruptura. Esa tarea permite reconstruir cómo se movió el terreno y evaluar mejor la secuencia de sismos que siguió al evento principal.
Las réplicas pueden continuar durante días, semanas o meses
Tras el sismo principal, la RSN ya había contabilizado cerca de 10 réplicas considerables. Linkimer alertó que podrían ocurrir más durante las próximas horas, días, semanas e incluso meses, y que algunas podrían sentirse en Costa Rica.
Las réplicas son terremotos posteriores que ocurren en la zona afectada mientras la corteza busca un nuevo equilibrio. Suelen tener una magnitud menor que la del movimiento principal, aunque pueden resultar perceptibles y, en algunos casos, generar alarma entre la población.
La posibilidad de nuevas sacudidas no permite anticipar con precisión la fecha ni la intensidad de cada réplica. Lo que sí señalan los especialistas es que una secuencia de este tipo es esperable después de un terremoto de magnitud 7,6, sobre todo en un sector donde confluyen placas y fallas activas.
earthquake,horizontal
INTERNACIONAL
Massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Panama as officials investigate potential tsunami threat
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Panama’s southern coast Friday, shaking the country’s capital as officials investigated a potential tsunami threat.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the earthquake at magnitude 8.0 before lowering its estimate to 7.7. The quake struck at 1:56 p.m. ET, approximately 6 miles beneath the surface, near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama.
A 5.5 magnitude aftershock followed, with its epicenter approximately 50 miles east of the initial earthquake.
MORE THAN 3,000 MISSING AFTER COLOMBIA EARTHQUAKE AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROVIDES $15.5 MILLION IN RELIEF
People stand outside the maternity ward of the Santo Tomas hospital after a severe magnitude 7.7 earthquake thet hit the country in Panama City Oct. 9, 2026. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)
The earthquake was felt in Panama City and in San José, the capital of neighboring Costa Rica, according to Reuters.
Tsunami officials warned that waves reaching 3 to 10 feet above tide levels were possible along some coastal areas of Panama, while parts of Ecuador could experience waves of approximately 1 to 3 feet.
Smaller tsunami waves of less than 1 foot above tide levels were forecast for coastal areas of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.
COLOMBIA BUILDING COLLAPSES ON CAMERA AS EARTHQUAKE BRINGS DEATH, DESTRUCTION
Medical workers and patients gather outside a hospital after a powerful earthquake in Panama Oct. 9, 2026. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the potential danger to coastal communities near the earthquake, officials said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.
Earthquakes measuring between 7.0 and 7.9 can cause serious damage, according to Michigan Technological University.
Information about possible damage or casualties from Friday’s earthquake was not immediately available.
People gather in a Panama City square after evacuating a building after a powerful earthquake. (Arnulfo Franco/AFP via Getty Images)
This is a developing story; check back later for updates.
earthquakes, tsunami, world, natural disasters
INTERNACIONAL
Culture clash laid bare as violent Somali gangs grip suburban communities: ‘These kids are different’
More than 100 rounds fired in a Minnesota neighborhood have left police struggling to explain a troubling pattern: Somali American youths from financially comfortable households are turning online disputes into gang violence.
The violence raises bigger questions about what is driving these gangs and whether struggles to fit into American life, cultural or clan ties, government policies or failures by schools and other institutions have played a role and what makes these youths different from traditional American street gangs.
«They’re coming from families. They got money, and they have resources,» Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges told Digital of the young Somali American gang members under investigation.
Those questions follow a late-night Bloomington gunfight that left one person injured during a string of shootings across suburban Minneapolis-St. Paul.
100-SHOT SOMALI GANG GUN BATTLE ROCKS MINNESOTA AS SHERIFF WARNS ‘WE’RE IN TROUBLE’
Hodges said the suspects defy traditional drug- or money-driven gang profiles. Asked what drives the violence beyond social media disputes, he acknowledged investigators lack a clear answer.
«I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I really wish I could,» Hodges said.
Somalia, long considered a failed state until the mid-2010s, according to the U.N., has endured decades of clan-based warfare and weak central government authority, including the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu depicted in «Black Hawk Down,» when Somali militiamen battled U.S. forces during an ill-fated military operation, part of the turmoil that drove waves of refugees to America.
More than 111,000 Somali refugees were admitted to the U.S. between 2001 and 2023 through the federal refugee resettlement program, spanning the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations. Minnesota became a major destination, alongside sizable Somali American communities in New York, Texas and Ohio.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, believes one possible explanation lies in how refugees have been resettled.
«We have to remember also that this population’s origins were as refugees who were a vulnerable population and traumatized in many cases,» Vaughan told Digital.
«But they were settled in clusters in certain places in the United States. And I believe that is a policy that has facilitated the formation of these gangs because it removes a lot of the incentives for people to assimilate.
«And it just makes assimilation to the larger society much more difficult because it’s not necessary for people to get by.»
Vaughan described an emphasis on preserving homeland cultures rather than encouraging integration as a «missed opportunity,» arguing it can leave immigrants in a «separate society within the larger Minnesota community.»
History, however, complicates the argument that maintaining strong ethnic ties necessarily prevents assimilation.
Stanford sociologist Tomás Jiménez cautioned against treating gang involvement among a small subset of second-generation immigrants as evidence that an entire community has failed to integrate.
«I would actually not think of it as, like, a failed assimilation, as much as a particular kind of assimilation,» Jiménez said.
He noted that Italian, Irish, Mexican and Salvadoran communities experienced gang activity while broader integration continued.
Jiménez emphasized that assimilation unfolds across generations, pointing out that the Italian American experience spanned roughly 75 years rather than occurring overnight. He identified education, economic advancement, language and intermarriage as important measures of integration.
NATION REVEALS HOW RUDY GIULIANI BROKE THE MAFIA’S GRIP ON NEW YORK
Donald Tricarico, an Italian American immigration scholar at Queensborough Community College, drew parallels between Italian and Irish immigrants, who established close-knit ethnic communities in New York. He said Italian families often followed relatives from the same villages into the same neighborhoods and occupations.
«They came to the same neighborhoods … what migration historians call ‘chain migration,’ and they … went to the same neighborhoods,» he said, citing his own family’s multigenerational experience in New York City.
«There isn’t a switch that gets flipped,» Tricarico said, challenging assumptions that Italian Americans assimilated quickly and noting that close-knit ethnic communities persisted into the 1980s in some cases.
WORKING-CLASS AMERICANS SAY THEIR TOWN IS THE NEXT DEARBORN — AND THEY’VE HAD ENOUGH
«Assimilation is a slow crawl,» he said, explaining that economic advancement and integration typically unfold across generations.
Tricarico noted that some Sicilian immigrants arrived with ties to existing Mafia networks overseas, a criminal element distinct from the broader Italian immigrant population. Hodges, meanwhile, said investigators have found no evidence that longstanding clan rivalries in Somalia are driving the Minnesota violence.
Somali American community figures have offered their own explanations, including the challenges facing immigrant parents.
At an Eden Prairie news conference Wednesday, Somali teacher Fardousa Yossuf suggested parents working long hours may have neglected their children’s needs and «expressed disbelief» that people raised with Islamic values could engage in gun violence, according to Alpha News.
Imam Yusuf Abdulle rejected characterizing the violence as a Somali problem in an interview with WCCO – CBS Minnesota posted on YouTube.
«These kids are Americans. They’re born and raised here,» Abdulle said. «It is an American problem. It is not a Somali problem.»
Vaughan, meanwhile, warned that the gangs have not reached the sophistication of transnational organizations such as MS-13 but could become more entrenched without intervention.
She pointed to families and schools as critical to preventing recruitment and argued that local institutions and law enforcement must intervene before the groups become more organized.
Vaughan acknowledged she had not established that specific Minnesota schools or resettlement policies prompted the shootings.
Asked whether longstanding Somali clan rivalries were fueling the shootings, Hodges said investigators found no evidence supporting that explanation.
«No, we have not seen that. I haven’t seen it,» he said.
He added that people from groups in conflict in Somalia can belong to the same cliques in Minnesota.
SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER
Hodges said police are redirecting task force resources toward the gangs and questioned whether some Hennepin County prosecution policies could limit intervention.
He warned the Bloomington gunfire could have endangered innocent bystanders had it occurred during daylight.
«If that had been one o’clock in the afternoon, it would have been a different story on that block,» he said.
minnesota, somali immigrant community, crime world, politics, minneapolis st paul, refugees, immigrant education, donald trump
Jornada financiera: las acciones y los bonos argentinos cayeron pese a la mejora global y el riesgo país tuvo una leve suba
A pesar del fallo de la Corte Suprema, la oposición insiste con rechazar el DNU que deroga la Ley de Tierras – Nexofin
Video: los periodistas panameños abandonaron el programa por el terremoto
Por qué el terremoto en Panamá se sintió durante varios segundos y las hipótesis sobre su origen tectónico
Qué es una medida cautelar “interina”, la herramienta que utilizó la Corte Suprema para reponer la ley de tierras
Massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Panama as officials investigate potential tsunami threat
Escándalo total en la AFA: reventa millonaria, un homenaje paupérrimo a Messi y el pedido urgente de renuncia a Chiqui Tapia
Después de su prohibición, las plataformas de apuestas deportivas y los casinos en línea ya están fuera de servicio en Brasil
Marcha contra la Corte: sectores del PJ, la izquierda, gremios y piqueteros protestan por el fallo que libera la venta de tierras para extranjeros
El discurso completo de Leo Messi en su despedida con Argentina: ‘Hoy me toca quizás el día más triste de mi carrera’
DEPORTE2 días agoEscándalo total en la AFA: reventa millonaria, un homenaje paupérrimo a Messi y el pedido urgente de renuncia a Chiqui Tapia
- DEPORTE3 días ago
El discurso completo de Leo Messi en su despedida con Argentina: ‘Hoy me toca quizás el día más triste de mi carrera’
- SOCIEDAD2 días ago
Tobey Maguire se quedaba ciego con el traje de Spider-Man y casi se desmaya durante una prueba: fabricar su disfraz fue una pesadilla
